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Glenkerry House
Glenkerry House is a 14 storey tower block located on Bercham Street on the Brownfield and Rowlett Estate in Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. There are four four-bedroom maisonettes on the ground floor, 17 one-bedroom, 45 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom flats; 78 flats in all. It is 52 metres tall. Glenkerry House was the final tower block to be completed on the estate, which is also home to the iconic Balfron Tower and Carradale House, which were completed in 1967 and 1970, respectively. The architect of those, Erno Goldfinger, applied what he had learned from their successes and failures to design the famous Trellick Tower in West London. Following the designing of Trellick Tower, he was commissioned by the Greater London Council to turn his attentions back to the Brownfield estate to design Glenkerry House. The tower was submitted and approved in 1971. It was completed in 1977, as one of the last tower blocks to be built in London. Upon completion, the GLC decided to hand it over to the Greater London Secondary Housing Association (GLSHA). Goldfinger applied his signature design styles to Glenkerry House so that it complemented the styles of Balfron Tower and Carradale House. As a result, the tower received Grade II listed building status from English Heritage in 2000, and was included in the Balfron Tower Conservation Area, designated in 1998. Unlike Balfron and Carradale, which are run by a housing association, Glenkerry House has been run as a shared ownership housing cooperative since 1979. GLSHA decided to promote a Community Leasehold Housing Co-operative in which the block would be managed, not by an external company, but by the residents themselves. Glenkerry remained empty for some eighteen months before the first Co-operators moved into the block in the spring of 1979. GLSHA managed the scheme until April 1980 when the elected Management Committee took over. The co-op bought a 99-year lease from the GLSHA, partly funded by grants from the Housing Corporation and the Greater London Council, and raised about a third of the cost from sales to residents (members). The GLC also provided a loan for the remainder of the cost, the interest on which is covered by ground rent charged to residents. The freehold is now owned by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Residents buy and sell the leaseholds of their homes from the council at half the valuation, as assessed by the District Valuer. The building is managed by a committee of its residents, and research on housing co-ops in 1983 concluded that it was exceptionally well-run. Because this form of shared ownership does not allow the residents to increase their share and become full owner-occupiers, the Conservative government of the day did not give support to the model. Nevertheless, it is now widely regarded as a model for shared ownership co-operatives, as it provides equity stakes that allow members to benefit from gains in the housing market, while locking in the subsidy so that the homes remain affordable to new members. External links * Glenkerry Co-operative Housing Association * Wikipedia article category:14 storey tower blocks category:Tower blocks built in the 1970s category:Tower blocks in London